Impacts of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals and effective approaches to maneuver them in the post-pandemic environment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the pursuit of constructing a sustainable world for all through the instrumental seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, the COVID-19 pandemic...     

Effect of slow release nitrogenous fertilizers and biochar on growth,physiology, yield,and nitrogen use efficiency of sunflower under arid climate

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Sunflower plants need nitrogen consistently and in higher amount for optimum growth and development. However, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of...     

Temporal variation in leachate composition of a newly constructed landfill site in Lahore in context to environmental pollution and risks

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigated the seasonal and temporal variations in the extent and source of physiochemical and toxic trace elements in the Lakhodair...     

Experimental study on fresh,mechanical properties and embodied carbon of concrete blended with sugarcane bagasse ash,metakaolin, and millet husk ash as ternary cementitious material

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In recent years, the research direction is shifted toward introducing new supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in lieu of in place of Portland...     

Taurine modulates dynamics of oxidative defense,secondary metabolism,and nutrient relation to mitigate boron and chromium toxicity in Triticum aestivum L. plants

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The present study was undertaken to appraise the efficacy of exogenous taurine in alleviating boron (B) and chromium (Cr) toxicity. Taurine protects...     

Plastics in the environment as potential threat to life: an overview

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Plastics have become inevitable for human beings in their daily life. Million tons of plastic waste is entering in oceans, soil, freshwater, and...     

Environmental and health impacts of spraying COVID-19 disinfectants with associated challenges

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Coronavirus refers to a group of widespread viruses. The name refers to the specific morphology of these viruses because their spikes look like a...     

Cluster analysis and quality assessment of logged water at an irrigation project, eastern Saudi Arabia

A multivariate statistical technique, cluster analysis, was used to assess the logged surface water quality at an irrigation project at Al-Fadhley, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. The principal idea behind using the technique was to utilize all available hydrochemical variables in the quality assessment including trace elements and other ions which are not considered in conventional techniques for water quality assessments like Stiff and Piper diagrams. Furthermore, the area belongs to an irrigation project where water contamination associated with the use of fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides is expected. This quality assessment study was carried out on a total of 34 surface/logged water samples. To gain a greater insight in terms of the seasonal variation of water quality, 17 samples were collected from both summer and winter seasons. The collected samples were analyzed for a total of 23 water quality parameters including pH, TDS, conductivity, alkalinity, sulfate, chloride, bicarbonate, nitrate, phosphate, bromide, fluoride, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, arsenic, boron, copper, cobalt, iron, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, mercury and zinc. Cluster analysis in both Q and R modes was used. Q-mode analysis resulted in three distinct water types for both the summer and winter seasons. Q-mode analysis also showed the spatial as well as temporal variation in water quality. R-mode cluster analysis led to the conclusion that there are two major sources of contamination for the surface/shallow groundwater in the area: fertilizers, micronutrients, pesticides, and insecticides used in agricultural activities, and non-point natural sources.     

Fluoride and health hazards: community perception in a fluorotic area of central Rajasthan (India): an arid environment

India is among the 23 nations around the globe where health problems occur due to excess ingestion of fluoride (>1.5 mg/l) by drinking water. In Rajasthan, 18 out of 32 districts are fluorotic and 11 million of the populations are at risk. An exploratory qualitative survey was conducted to describe perception of the community regarding fluoride and related health problems in Central Rajasthan. A study on distribution and health hazards by fluoride contaminate in groundwater was performed in 1,030 villages of Bhilwara district of Central Rajasthan. One thousand thirty water samples were collected and analyzed for fluoride concentration. Fluoride concentration in these villages varies from 0.2 to 13.0 mg/l. Seven hundred fifty-six (73.4%) villages have fluoride concentration above 1.0 mg/l. Sixty (5.83%) villages have fluoride concentration above 5.0 mg/l with maximum numbers (24, 19.5%) from Shahpura tehsil. A detailed fluorosis study was carried out in 41 villages out of 60 villages having fluoride above 5.0 mg/l in the study age, sex, and occupation data were also collected. Four thousand, two hundred fifty-two individuals above 5 years age were examined for the evidence of dental fluorosis, while 1998 individuals above 21 years were examined for the evidence of skeletal fluorosis. The overall prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis was found to be 3,270/4,252 (76.9%) and 949/1,998 (47.5%), respectively. Maximum of 23.9% (1,016) individuals have mild grade of Dean’s classification. Three hundred seventy-four (8.8%) individuals have severe type of dental fluorosis. The Dean’s Community Fluorosis Index for the studied area in total is 1.62. Maximum CFI 3.0 was recorded from Surajpura of Banera Tehsil. Five hundred sixty-six (28.3%) individuals have Grade I type of skeletal fluorosis while only 0.6% (12) individuals have Grade III skeletal fluorosis. In conclusion, the prevalence and severity of fluorosis increased with increasing fluoride concentration. It was interesting to note that in some villages, the prevalence and severity of fluorosis were highest in subjects belonging to the economically poor community. Similarly, male laborers showed highest prevalence of fluorosis. Prevalence and severity of fluorosis were observed higher in subjects using tobacco, bettle nuts, and alcoholic drinks. In contrast, subjects using citrus fruits and having good nutritional status showed low prevalence.     

Correction to: Ecotoxicological assessment of oil-based paint using three-dimensional multi-species bio-testing model: pre- and post-bioremediation analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The original publication of this paper contains a mistake.